Frivolities and the Apocalypse
Sharon August 28th, 2008
I knew it would happen. I’m just about at the fourth anniversary of this blog, and for the first time ever, I posted two (of more than 400) posts about security and weapons, and I got three seperate emails telling me that they were never going to read me again because I’d turned into a Rambo (Ramba?) type. Can you wonder I wasn’t looking forward to Tuesday’s posts?
I also know I still haven’t done this week’s Post-Apocalyptic novel post. I’ll try and get it up tonight, if not, tomorrow morning. We’re discombobulated here with the harvest, Eric’s semester started up and the book release and its publicity thingies hitting all at once. If you are around Salt Lake City, I’ll be on KUER 90.1 between 1 and 2 EST (is that 12-1 or 11-12 in SLC?) today talking about Victory Gardens. There will be a bunch of other radio interviews coming up as well – maybe I’ll make a sidebar section for them.
Ok, I feel like after Tuesday, we need something much lighter. So I thought I’d ask what you and your family members might need to store/plan for to be happy if things get messy? And for this, I’m asking you to be lighthearted about this – nothing about how all you need is your honey (I have a pretty sensitive vomit response 
) or really serious “Well, I’d die without my heart medication.” I’m talking about little stuff that you don’t want to give up.
Here’s my list, done in the spirit of lightheartedness and far too much information about me. I probably don’t need to be able to make these things myself or have a stock, but who knows if I’ll have the money for them:
1. Tea – I have a lot of substitutes, and grow betony, mints, bee balm, lemon verbena, etc… but I want my real, actual, tea, dammit. So I buy it in large quantities and keep it in the freezer in mylar bags. Next year, I’m getting a camellia bush.
2. Peanut butter – my kids love it, I love it, my husband loves it. If I mix it with chocolate, I can make a pretty good impression of my favorite candy bar. I do grow a few peanuts here, but they don’t really like our soil or temperatures that much. When we run out of peanut butter, I’m probably going to sit around and whine a lot.
3. Apples – These are my oldest’s comfort food – that and popsicles, which I can’t see any good way to keep coming. We’ve got lots of trees, and we store bushels of them, but should plant more trees.
4. Beer. Me, I’d rather drink wine – I like beer fine, just not as much as DH. Our first brewing experiments were pretty good, and I’ve got a plot of barley planned for next year as well as some hops.
5. Books – have I mentioned the thousands in our house? I can deal with anything if I can retreat into a novel now and again. Oh, and if I really ran out of new content, I suppose I could write some .
6. Batteries and a solar charger. I will leave to your imagination why Eric and I need these . Partly it is to keep the CD players going, since my husband literally cannot live without music. Partly.
7. Vanilla beans – I can actually do fine without chocolate and if you really push me, I can make do without lemons (sumac isn’t a bad substitute, but I do have a couple of citrus trees in pots), but don’t take my vanilla beans away. I suppose I could try growing a vanilla orchid in my house, but I have a lot of these stashed away in a little bag in the freezer, more in a jar with vodka over them and some buried in sugar.
Going through the rest of the household, I think Eric will be ok as long as he has the occasional beer and a friendly wife – although he’d probably do even better if I picked up 10 jars of nutella, and he’d really like a set of steel drums (Craigslist?). Eli likes soda, which we generally don’t allow, but which we do know how to make - must up the wine yeast for birthday treats. Simon likes mustard on everything, all the kids like sugar (duh) -which we’ve got. Isaiah loves olives and nuts and Asher, among whose first words were “smoked gouda” is really into cheese. So must store more olives, plant more nut trees, buy more mustard seeds and store more vegetarian rennet. Oh, and get some more goats or a cow or something .
How about you?
Sharon
- adapting in place
- Comments(72)
Sharon, I applaud your courage in posting a realistic discussion of self defense considerations in the context of preparing for a possible breakdown of societal constraints during the coming dislocation. (How’s that for a sentence?)
While surely none of us knows what is going to happen, defense of one’s family must be considered, however offensive this idea is to committed pacifists. While some will be offended, others of us will appreciate your obvious committment to provide your readers the maximum opportunity to survive whatever comes.
My remarks about suicide were given in the same vein. While I appreciate your preference for morphine, and I have considered the option of walking into the woods on a cold winter night, the possibility of disability and inability to care for oneself without going into an institution has to enter into a realistic rationale for the keeping of guns. Of course I would never desert my partner while she depended on me, but fear that someone might decide to take her own life rather than continue a life of helplessness should never justify taking that choice away.
So thank you for your fearlessness. Some of us see in it a committment to provide what we need to hear, even when it might be uncomfortable to hear it.
I could hardly live without books–and fear the loss of my eyesight.
Coffee and tea, surely.
Cookies!
Walks in the woods.
Our forest! So many dangers of losing it.
Birds.
While living overseas in a “developing” country, I found the things I missed most were Snickers bars and avacados. I would never have guessed before hand.
Definitely tea.
Really Good Chocolate. I just wish it stored better; I’m very picky about the texture.
Complicated German board games. Give me an Advanced Civilization set and I can keep 7 people happy for 8-14 hours
Books, especially picture books.
Definitely chocolate — I should stock up on my cocoa so in the worst case scenario I could still whip up a pan of yummy brownies. I do have chocolate chips in the freezer, as well.
peanut butter – I usually have at least a 6 month supply in the house at all time… it’s just a few jars since I’m the only one who really loves it in my house
I also really need to find a bread recipe that mimics Hawaiian Sweet Bread – my husband’s addiction — anyone have a good one??
Hey Ramba Woman ;0
1. COFFEE — I have those tea substitutes and can make them work, but I’m not sure I could face TEOTWAWKI without coffee. Can you grow a camellia bush so far north?
2.Beer — for the DH — barley and hops in the plan here next year too — he doesn’t seem too excited about yarrow ale
3. Chocolate — this is probably on everyone’s list
4. Wasabi peanuts — just something about the heat and the crunch
Tea is number one for me too. I’m an herbalist, but I just don’t “do” the herbal stuff unless it’s for medicine. Every day, black tea. Gotta have it!
Chocolate. Must.have.dark.chocolate. And chocolate chips.
Beer for DH and most of our neighbors. Spanish red wines for me are a real treat. For some reason I love all red wines I’ve had from Spain. Tempranillo. Granache. Oh, and Malbec from Argentina. But I don’t drink wine very often–could probably live without. But like you, I hate local wines!
Eyeglasses. DH and I would be blind as bats. Of course, we could learn eye exercises and sit in the sun every day. I’ve been told that improves nearsightedness.
Old-time music. I’m listening to Johny Cash and June Carter Cash right now. I love old-time music, which is why we also now own a fiddle, banjo, mandoline, guitars, and more. We are going to try and make our own music.
And my husband would curl up and die without his flute. (Sorry, is that too somber like the heart medicine thing?)
And thank G*d for me, there will always be green. Grass, trees, flowers. Well, at least I pray there will be.
Oh, guns. Don’t really care what sort.
(I can just see Sharon reading this and thinking ‘bite me.’)
Joking aside, I think guns are an issue we in the US have to look at, and we might as well have a balanced discussion. I think on the whole Rambina set up a decent frame work and people responsed, by and large, fairly well, for such an explosive (hum, hum) topic.
I like to have good reproductions of art work — a well produced history of art book is good enough for me — that I can look at.
I like to have music to listen too.
Books, of course, and some sort of attractive needwork (can be functional too,) to work on in my copious spare time.
I think I’m going to miss spare time, too.
Art supplies, to keep my children occupied in their spare time.
Games, esp. tile laying ones. Cards, too.
Our cats.
Roses — I have a lovely Iceberg and a Europeana, which need a bit of extra work. I could justify them in terms of rose hips, but I’d want them anyway.
Hot baths — which I miss now, but that’s another story.
Basically though, it’s stuff I have on hand now, thank goodness.
MEA
What exactly do you (can you) do with the sumac? it sure is abundant, so I’d love to know how to put it to use!
I have often thought about giving up coffee. I gave it up when I was pregnant with the little one and the first six months of his life. But coffee, it is the oil that keeps this momma going sometimes.
Nuts are a luxury these days. They have become very expensive lately. So we are looking at nut trees that can grow in zone four. Maybe black walnut and beech nut.
The occasional luxury yarn. You know the Noro silk garden types, a fine merino or alpaca, heck even cotton yarn could be an expensive luxury in the future. Kinda hard to grow a cotton plant in Maine. Although there has been some flax grown up north and maybe hemp will be grown again. A yarn that I couldn’t afford to make a sweater out of but maybe a hat. I see the fiber content of most yarn being very utilitarian in the future. I’m learning to spin but I don’t see that fiber becoming a beautiful handpainted blend of exotic fiber.
Finally, a cribbage board and playing cards. Hubby and I spent most of our courtship learning about each other over a cribbage board. Portable and quick and can be played by oil lamp.
I’m kind of lucky, I guess: most of my hobbies are pretty useful in a post-collapse world; vegetable gardening, fly tying, fly fishing (heck, fishing in any form short of pitchforks and dynamite), handloading, hunting…
But other than that, books, whiskey (hmmm, better start stockpiling single malts now), beer, and lemonade (boy will I ever miss lemonade). In terms of amusements, we’ve got a chessboard, a Go board, some decks of cards, and some tomahawks and throwing knives (throwing axes and knives at things is even more relaxing than it sounds and is an integral part of my stress management program). Stargazing is fun too; you can have hours of fun with nothing more than a basic astronomy guidebook and some binoculars.
Friends and family are good to have around, too.
In terms of essentials, my eyeglasses.
Olive oil. I’ll eat many many things made with butter, but I’d rather not have to use it in things like fresh tomato sauce. How many olive trees do I need to make a year’s supply of olive oil?
I admitted to myself a few months ago that my favorite really is the “bad” chocolate. Terrible, milk, American, non-fair trade chocolate. Mr. Goodbar style. There’s no real replacement.
Also peanut butter. I love it. It’s great for when I get tired of cheese on my toast, among other things.
Speaking of toast, wheat. Potatoes aren’t the same. I think that manual grinder may just be worth it.
Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do and self defence is one of things that falls into that catagory. Thinking warm fuzzy peacenik thoughts will not save you unless everyone else who could be threatening is thinking the same thoughts, to believe overwise is naive. If your are aware enough to realize that eventually the shit will hit the fan , you also have to be aware enough to realize you must be just as responsible for your safety situation as you must be for your financial, health, and food situtation.
I for one have a very stong flight reflex and angry confrontations give me a sick feeling yet I own guns and will use them to protect mine if I have to. (I can alway woof my cookies after I shoot them).
Things to make us happy durring the apocalypse, mmmm
My wife could probably survive quite well with a endless supply of books, Coke, crime TV and chocolate, That and the end of takeout, Man she’s in for a shock
Peanut butter is a food group for my my 4 year old, PB and honey is almost always 1 meal a day..
For myself, I love my 3000 mile salad and brocoli in Feb, I’ve never been a veggie guy but those ones I like I could and do eat daily
I don’t eat a lot of it but I love Pineapple, honey dates, guacomole, can you can Guacomole?
Spices for cooking and baking, (the vanilla beans in vodka is a good idea, I think I’ll do that this weekend).
Beers in resonable quantity but in numerous varieties.
Wine, even home made is great but what if I can’t find any french oak to properly age it, or a hooper to make me a barrel, that will really be the end of civilization.
Sharron you have lots of apples, have you tried hard cider or apple Jack?
If you take fresh cider add extra sugar and champange yeast you get a wonderfully refreshing and resonably potenet sparkling apple wine, I used to make if with a cider kit until the company stopped producing it.
The Web, I’m a news and information junkie and I truely fear how much my world will shrink should communications fall apart, as much as I like to camp the disconnect from the big picture grates me after a couple of days.
And the most telling sign of my geekiness, a group of friends and a pile of board or role playing games.
Sharon (or anyone else) remember the fellow with the books in the crapper,(Lucifers Hammer) and his issue with finding a way to make his own insulin, has anybody ever seen the recipe/instructions to harvest desicate measure and store thyroids; without my thyroxin the rest of my hording and planning is moot!
Guitar and ukulele strings (which presumes the instruments of course)
Coffee and/or green tea
Rice, rice, rice, preferably sushi style — everytime we go down to our local park, we think hmmm rice paddy?
Books (and eyeglasses including sunglasses)
Beer or wine or something else
Ume plums (possibly we could do this ourselves now that we grow shiso and assuming we had salt if I could figure out what type of tree to plant and big if it grows in our climate)
Black olives (even the canned kind)
Cinnamon (I would really miss this); my partner would miss vanilla and chocolate more — we’d both really miss ginger
Sunscreen
Lemons and limes
We’d both really miss movies
Tea, oh yes, hot strong sweet black tea! I have a small stockpile, but I think I may just ramp that up a bit!
And a good moisturizer is really important up here in Zone 2/3 – I really need to learn to make that myself….
Cards. Bamboo Flutes. Neighbors.
Anonymous – I’m with you on bad chocolate. I don’t like the dark stuff at all – I like my chocolate as an accent, and adulterated with as much milk as possible. I know, I know, I’m lame.
For me “eyeglasses” are like “heart medication” – somewhere I once heard about a place on the web that does really cheap prescription eyeglasses, even complicated prescriptions, with ugly but usable frames. But I haven’t been able to find the source again? Anyone know it.
GAB, synthroid is one of those medications that would be pretty easy for someone with the right equipment to make. I know this – I talked to a couple of chemists when I was researching _Depletion and Abundance_ and writing the section on health care. So yes, stock up, but you might also talk to a local university (or even good high school) chemist and consider stockpiling the components.
And I have made hard cider – but thanks for the cider-wine idea, yum!
Kerri – Smush the berries and soak them in water, and you get a sour (by fall there’s a bit of bitterness) liquid. Sweeten it and make lemonade, or add it to foods. Not quite the same, but high in vitamin C, you can can sumac lemonade, and tasty in its own way.
Karin, how could I have left YARN off the list. Oh, yeah, because I’ve got that one covered – the stash is umm…embarassingly large.
Sharon
The security post was great – I sent it to several friends.
Please do not give up and only post more frivolous stuff. We all need a dose of realism and to think our options and potential actions though. This is hard and may cause thinking and moral considerations to happen. Something we lazy North Americans aren’t used to doing. We don’t need to be spoon fed more mush.
Keep it up – your blog is interesting, inspiring and thought provoking!
My husband and granddaughter made a teepee several years ago. The next project is to make headdresses. In that light, my daughter ordered little spears for ornaments on the headdresses. Well, she thought she ordered little spears. When they came, they were 5 foot long iron weapons. So…..our plan is to drive them into the ground with something ominous on top, like a mask or a scary pumpkin…and put out a sign “Doner or Dinner”.
I used to think I would miss Mister Clean Magic Sponges until my brother-in-law told me that car shammies are great in the shower. Who knew?
I used to think I would miss deodorant until I found purslane spray. It works fine.
P.S. I think not defending oneself and family is a mortal sin.
Lights, lights and many more lights. My son outfits the inexpensive battery powered closet lights with
LED bulbs to use a lot less power.
Supposedly, as a child, I only went to sleep with lights on.
I still do not care much for the dark, unless of course, the stars are out!
Ramba, I thought you covered the possibility of passificism and how to try and keep peace so I was satisfied. I know Quakers who are prepared to die rather than commit violence – it doesn’t do any harm to consider how quickly we’d sucumb to violence and if we want to live with that.
That aside, I will listen for you on the radio! How exciting.
Dark Chocolate, lights, escapist literature, lemons, olive oil. With the cost of good coffee I’m already cutting back. Can I stock pile the internet?
I too have hobbies that are useful: gardening, fishing, quilting
wine, coffee, tomatoes (yeah, I know, I grow them in the back yard and I should be able to keep growing them, but still, can’t imagine living without them), chickens (again, the back yard thing), music, sunscreen, wool (yarn), batteries and shampoo.
Sharon it is not embarassingly large…It is well prepared
( or at least the is the justification I am going to use!)
Cats. Goats. (other people have televisions; we sit around and talk and watch the cats, or go hang out in the back lot with the goats)
Coffee (for John; my stimulant of choice is Pepsi . . . unfortunately, I am now diabetic and must give it up except for special occasions, so that will be moot, I guess)
Books.
More books.
And glasses, for both of us.
Needlework: I sew (and have a treadle machine and a sizable fabric stash), embroider, crochet, am learning to knit (and have, also, a fair-sized stash of yarn).
Stuffing—I make dolls (possibly a barter-able skill?), and I have two big boxes stashed away in my closet. (yes, it’s polyester . . . but I could use odd bits of wool, too)
Salt and olive oil.
Spices.
Vanilla.
Batteries and solar charger, also—I really love my CDs. I can live without music, but I’m happier (and easier to live with) with it. (And there’s the computer, of course . . . )
I’m thinking about investing in an alto recorder and some early music—then I could make my own, eventually. I think.
And I’d really miss oranges and bananas.
Chocolate, spiced black tea, ice cream. I use medication that I could teach myself to get along without, but really prefer not to have to, for the sake of my mental stability and possibly my physical security… does that count?
The internet is my major vice right now and I don’t know how I’ll wean myself from it. Possibly scraps of paper tacked to a bulletin board in the middle of town. Which would disintegrate into nonsense, one-liners, and hand-drawn LOLcats in no time, I’m sure.
Sharon,
here is an inexpensive site for eyeglasses:
http://www.39dollarglasses.com/
Chocolate
Green tea
new books to read
more rechargeable batteries
netflix
Those would be the five things I would miss the most. Unfortunately, I eat the chocolate and sip the tea while reading a book.
Kim
Karin, I’m with you on looking for nut trees to grow.
For zone 4, I did a quick search to see what’s out there and found this Hazelnut:
http://www.greenwoodnursery.com/page.cfm/297
And this English Walnut and also Filbert (Hazelnut):
http://www.walnut-hills.com/
There were other sites as well. We have some black walnuts growing here, a few of which will be coming down because they’re in the wrong place (not planted on purpose). But I was just reading on a site about how to harvest them for a less dark/strong flavor, so I think I’ll go out and gather some this year, before they get cut down. Not to worry, there are other black walnuts on the property, at least one of which is in a less damaging location. OTOH, the wood is excellent for furniture, building, and firewood, so it isn’t a complete loss in regards to nuts.
[...] Casaubon’s Book » Blog Archive » Frivolities and the Apocalypse I knew it would happen. I’m just about at the fourth anniversary of this blog, and for the first time ever, I posted two (of more than 400) posts about security and weapons, and I got three seperate emails telling me that they were never going to read me again because I’d turned into a Rambo (Ramba?) type. Can you wonder I wasn’t looking forward to Tuesday’s posts? [...]
As far as fancy yarns, my plan is to use local yarns or plain old wool worsted, then make a fancy pocket from the specialty yarns.
“Possibly scraps of paper tacked to a bulletin board in the middle of town. Which would disintegrate into nonsense, one-liners, and hand-drawn LOLcats in no time, I’m sure.”
Oh, I’m cracking up! I think that outcome would be acceptable.
I might die without Wikipedia…seriously.
My luxuries:
HAND CREAM. For the love of G*D, HAND CREAM. I already have a stockpile, and think it would make a good barter item as well.
Lip balm for DH (same thing).
Also, coffee, wine, beer, books, incense, music, bags and bags of Halloween candy (my teeth will rot right out of my head, but I don’t care), and games. I’m totally with MEA on the hot baths, and I’m a total sucker for little cheapie toys – I’m 36 and things like superballs, little puzzles, finger puppets, etc. can keep me entertained for hours.
Dog toys – entertainment for them and me. Happiness is a tennis ball.
Fishing gear.
Batteries enough to run FUN things like music players, walkie-talkies, etc.
Birth control. (ahem)
Frankly I feel like neither hubby nor I have given enough thought to this question. I now want to seriously examine which little things in life really bring me joy and determine how much I’d miss them if they were gone.
We who are actual Rambinas know who we are. Those emailers were barking up the wrong tree, and should forgive our blogmistress for talking about all aspects of reality without the customary squeamishness.
At our house have games in cardboard boxes — remember those? Scrabble, Monopoly, Pig Out (Pig Out??), Boggle. And we can go a long time on gin rummy.
And we have a goodly supply of unplugged musical instruments.
OTOH, when they asked Buzz Aldrin what he would do if they couldn’t get the capsule off the moon: would he pray, spend time thinking about his family, etc. [journalists can be such ghouls sometimes], he replied that he would “spend the time assessing the availability of alternatives for launching the capsule” — or words to that effect. [!!]
So I visualize our evenings as being much the way they are now: mending, sewing, sharpening tools, mixing potting media, dipping candles, greasing boots. Perhaps, if the empty-nesters come back and circle the wagons, we’ll have a designated reader again, as we did before, while doing these things.
All this tends to be driven by the availablility of light. One of the significances of a full moon in previous centuries was that then you could do things you didn’t have time for in daylight (when you were in the fields), such as roofing the house.
During the new moon, families generally caught up on sleep. Or, if it was too dark to mend something and you weren’t sleepy yet, you might tell stories, and then if there were no stories left in you, you just sat there. Peasant zen.
James Herriot encountered a family that did that. Having no electricity, their day done, too dark to work, too early to go to bed, that all sat in a row. he felt it was a glimpse into the centuries.
First, I just finished reading a historical fiction book about the German civilian retreat from the Soviets at the end of WWII, and all the atrocities that were committed (on both sides). I would do ANYTHING to prevent these things from happening to my son, myself or my husband, and I have no doubt that it is possible for them to happen here in America.
Anyway, back to lightheartedness:
1. Hot showers (solar shower)
2. Coffee and tea
3. Books
4. Wine, cider, or beer (my husband’s homebrew rocks! For now we planted hops and are storing the little “homebrew kits” you can buy)
5. Good sneakers/shoes and socks
6. Batteries & charger for music and flashlights, maybe a laptop charger? Then of course we’d need to buy a laptop
7. Non-electric washing machine (just bought small one from Lehman’s)
8. Alleve for the occasional headache
9. Lotion/oil for my business (massage therapy)
10. Yummy scented candles
11. Solar lantern for reading and winter evenings
12. Floss!
Sharon,
Some folks who’ve been reading your posts for a long time are giving up after two posts they don’t like? That’s just plain silly. I’ll admit I gave up on the book-club posts after the first couple, but that doesn’t mean I won’t read everything else you write! I think it’s important to discuss those sorts of things not only for ideas on preparedness and security, but to help eliminate some of the fear some people have — the unknown is often scarier than it needs to be.
For our little things list:
- chocolate. I store bakers bars and some bakers chips so we can make various types of chocolate bark. And a friend introduced us to a solid bar form of cocoa for making hot chocolate.
- green tea. I’d like to get a camelia too, but no space for one just yet. Although they start out small… might be the thing to get to encourage building that greenhouse…
- board games and puzzles, of which we have quite a few
- music. We have CDs, records, etc., but also instruments and some sheet music. We could probably use more sheet music though. And a generator to supply power for the players.
- Nuts. thinking about planting some nut trees, when I have a place for them. English Walnut, Hazelnut/Filbert (not quite the same as each other, but close enough), and Almond. We’re supposedly Zone 5, but after last winter I’m kind of wondering…
- Nibblies like dried fruit. We also have various sweeteners and wheat berries and a grinder, so we can make cookies and crackers if we want to.
- Friends and family, and the cats. We make plenty of entertainment without the tv or the internet, much as I enjoy those on occasion.
- Books. We have a lot of them, and all different types, so I think we have plenty to keep us occupied. And then assuming the ‘emergency’ isn’t one that keeps us stuck in the house (flood, snowstorm), we could always see what other people have in their personal libraries and do some lending/borrowing.
- Lyle likes coffee once in a while, but we have plenty of that in store. Although I do have a tiny coffee plant, which might produce coffee beans someday. An indoor plant up here, but much smaller than the tea plant would be, at least for now.
- Lemons. I knew about sumac and will have to give it a try sometime, but right now I’m trying to grow lemons from seed. I still have one hanging on and one that seems to be doing well. Although I may get impatient at some point and buy a more mature plant as an addition. Hm, I may have to get rid of some furniture in the meantime… all these indoor plants!
- I’d miss olive oil, but I’ve had some success growing sunflower seeds this year, so maybe we could work on making oil in the future.
- I’m not a big traveler anymore (if going to PA once a year to camp and flying every 10 years or so counts as big), plus some events in neighboring states, but thankfully there are plenty of places to go right in our neighboring towns, and lovely fields and woods to walk in.
Hot running water! And tea. And (dark!) chocolate (Can I pretend to count it as local if it’s at least processed into candy here?) Spices. Vanilla beans. Soy creamer for my tea, because I’m seriously lactose intolerant. Technically, I could make creamer, but I’d need, A. soybeans and B. a way to make soy milk that doesn’t turn out bean-flavored, which I haven’t had a lot of success with.
The occasional coconut milk Thai curry. DH couldn’t live without his coffee — lots of it. He would also be unhappy without bananas and oranges. I’d miss citrus generally, especially lemons, limes and grapefruit. Lots and lots of books. Pecans, almonds, cashews. Olive oil. Canola oil, for that matter. Rice. Fortunately Oregon makes a whole lot of alcohol — everything from beer and wine to spirits, so that shouldn’t be in short supply. Maybe I could set up a trade system with someone in Florida or California …
Thanks, Rambina! :}
OMG, yes, the Internet. I’m already worrying about how I’ll give that up. And seriously thinking I should try to even before TSHTF, but I would have to throw/give/sell my laptop away and why, I just can’t justify that since it was a really nice gift from my parents last Christmas.
I know I’ll be like a crack addict going through withdrawl (how DO you spell that word?!) when I can’t log on and read blogs anymore. Really sad, isn’t it?
Yarn, yes, I’ll want yarn too.
Lisa in MN
My list of essentials are:
Circular knitting needles. I hate straights! Double Pointeds are fantastic for socks and mittens and I’m not worried about not having them because they are simple enough to make, but I don’t like long double points for the same reasons as I don’t like straights so for sweaters and shawls and other big things I really prefer my circular needles.
Coffee, peanut butter, chocolate – ‘nuf said
I too cannot live without music – but it doesn’t have to be prerecorded. I play several instruments and have even made some simple stringed instruments (ducimer and guitar like). So if I can’t have prerecorded music, and all my musical instruments get destroyed, I’d at the very least like to have some wood working tools to build my own.
You know, the more I think about it, the more I think I can survive anything as long as I have good tools (circular knitting needles included). I might even be able to survive a dearth of peanut butter and a lack of proper caffeine.
And as to the gun thing. I used to think I was such a pacifist I’d rather die than kill someone. However, I have children whom I’d rather see live than die at most any cost. I probably should get a gun and learn how to use it. Scarlett O’Hara shooting that Yankee to protect her family is forever my inspiration.
Lisa in MN
I can see there will be a run on Dark chocolate soon!
Running water! I lived without it for a year and a half as a child and it sucked!
Our next project is installing a hand pump, however it is not the same as turning on the tap.
My family. We all live too far away from each other and I worry that travel won’t be feasible.
New books. A few years ago in a phase of denial about our future and in a decluttering frenzy, I donated about 500 books. Yikes! I still have at least that many but now I am thrifting, paperbackswapping & garage saling as many as I can find and NOT reading them. I am using the library for current reading.
Writing materials. I am stocking up boxes of computer paper, pencils, pens etc..
Vanilla, cinnamon, red pepper flakes, salt, garlic- stocking!!! Last week I ordered 25 vanilla pods from Amazon for 25.00. Really good deal!
Music & movies. My son always has a guitar in his hands so we will be depending on him more than he knows! Note to self- stock up on guitar strings
I agree with a previous poster- Spare Time! I am afraid we will be seriously lacking that.
~Traci
Vancouver, WA
Oops, how could I forget fiber stuff? Although in my case it’s yarn, roving, spindles, loom, and I suppose knitting needles and a crochet hook — I have plans to try to knit socks this winter and learn to crochet. Meanwhile, have plenty of all of the above, plus scissors, needles and thread, so I have plenty to keep me busy, emergency situations or not
Karin, I’m with you on looking for nut trees to grow.
I did a quick search online for Zone 4 and found sites for English Walnut (lighter flavor than Black Walnut) and also Hazelnut and/or Filbert. Might be nice to have some variety. Hazelnuts are more like bushes than trees, so you might consider them for a hedge or as a second level under a maple or oak or something (Black Walnuts aren’t compatible with a lot of other stuff, although raspberries will grow under them).
We have some black walnuts growing here, a few of which will be coming down because they’re in the wrong place (not planted on purpose). But I was just reading on a site about how to harvest them for a less dark/strong flavor, so I think I’ll go out and gather some this year, before they get cut down. Not to worry, there are other black walnuts on the property, at least one of which is in a less damaging location. OTOH, the wood is excellent for furniture, building, and firewood, so it isn’t a complete loss in regards to nuts.
And almond extract! And purchased cotton batting and those expensive, gorgeous cotton fabrics, for quilts. Must learn to knit or crochet. Then I could stockpile yarn, too …
Spare time. Oh goodness sakes, yes, indeed. I’m going to need pre-recorded music; have no musical abilities whatsoever. Perhaps DH would oblige me by sitting around playing guitar.
Sharon, I am with you on the peanut butter, although even more I find I like almond butter (but at $8+ a jar, it doesn’t make the shopping list too often). So I planted a couple of hardy almond trees and am hoping they can handle the long PA winters. Also bought an olive tree, which will be a potted house plant at least until I get a greenhouse. Harvested my first lime off one of 2 citrus trees (also in pots).
Julie
The regular stuff… salt, olive oil, chocolate. Zone 4 sucks, btw.
The internet, music, hot baths, chapstick.
I hope to gain: letters written on paper and a renewed sense of community. So perhaps it’ll be ok after all.
Coffee
Chocolate- good dark stuff preferred but in a pinch even a Hershey bar will do…..
Music stuff- instruments, a CD player and CD’s, stuff to maintain the instruments, sheet music, etc
Peanut Butter(super chunky)
Warm socks!
Books- an endless supply of new ones
Ginger! I forgot about ginger! And Ben would be sad if we ran out of soy sauce and crunchy snacks. At least popcorn and crackers can be produced locally, as can soy sauce if anyone around here knew how to do it.
Fiber for spinning is definitely on the list, but I had classified that in my head as “theoretically quite useful”, rather than “diversion”.
I’m finding myself sort of glad that I don’t like alcohol. That stuff can get expensive.
I can’t believe I left curry powder and extra-strength Tylenol off my list! Error!
Playing cards AND RULES. And an electric lantern to play by. I can make paper but not plasticized playing cards.
I assume if we didn’t have electric lights for long enough I would adjust (though, if we’re adapting in place, we have months of less than 10 hours of light per day) but when we’ve visited off the grid it always turns out to be me & my partner and some other city people sitting up at 10 pm playing hearts. And you have to the rule book to turn to or things can get ugly in the family. I have a little paperback of card game rules that has come in handy many times.
Heck, me & the three year old were on our own last night. It was pouring, so no going outside for long. It was a no TV day (he poked some little girl at daycare yesterday). We made dinner, we made cookies, and then we played toddler Uno for about an hour.
The other thing I think about is paper. We go through SO MUCH paper. I have to write everything down or I forget it. We all draw, the kid colors and paints and practices letters…we have a dry wipe board and a chalk board but it’s not the same. I would miss cheap, uniform, disposable paper a lot.
I’m also a music/news radio person, but I’m choosing to believe radio will be the last media to disappear if things get bad. We have a crank radio, and a crank flashlight, but I’m shopping around for solar chargers too.
I do have some hope the internet will still exist, though most of the free sites & data servers we all assume will be there, won’t. But the internet as a medium for mail, news, and education is not as energy expensive as shipping mail & books. Even if it has to go super low bandwidth, you can store and transmit a *lot* of information in text format, and it takes less energy to support, say, a text-only mail server for a month than to gas up one post office truck – my boyfriend’s laptop has enough memory for what was the entire university’s online information system (using Pine & Gopher) when I started college, and takes less electricity than a 60 watt incandescent bulb.
Rosa -
I have not one, but TWO copies of the Book of Hoyle (I think that’s the name). We’re a family of rule followers when it comes to card games and are famous for calling people on not following the rules, and arguing about what the actual rules are. Without ol’ “Hoylie” (as we call it) there would be many a games dissolve into chaos! Good call!
We’ve been eating a Locavore diet since November, and it has helped me focus on what are “necessities” and what are not.
I could live the rest of my life without coffee, bananas and other tropical fruits. I would miss lemon juice. I would miss olive oil and olives a lot.
Tea, black and/or green, is really important to us. Of course I would not fall over if I couldn’t get it, but I would miss it terribly.
BTW Sharon, when you say you are planting camellia, do you mean “camellia sinensis”, or does any old camellia makes some sort of tea?
SALT! Not mentioned before–maybe it’s a practical necessity, but it stores forever and does not grow around here, and adds a lot of enjoyment to foods as well as being useful for food preservation.
Books (have a lot); yarn and material (have a lot, but maybe not enough yet); musical instruments (have and use, also sing). Music is very important to me.
Paper and notebooks–I should stockpile some more of these.
Board games. Off-the-grid lights.
I would REALLY miss hot water. And the internet. And the clothes washer. And shampoo and detergent.